User blog:Fire InThe Hole/Sub-Updaet 101b 2019-07-11 to 2019-08-01
(Back to the updates blog) Also known as the Journey log in my notes. This here bundle of text is all thoughts and events of my holiday in Indonesia. It's not a literal "we ate at 12.25 until 13.04" log, just notable happenings and thoughts along the way. I never did one of these posts before because I never actually kept any sort of log, and was too lazy to write a whole lot down afterwards when home. You will see this in the thing itself and I am not deduplicating it. I'm the wizard. It's me. Oh, and another note - sometimes the thoughts will venture into more serious topics like politics, religion and history. I might edit in trigger warnings/tabbers, but not during the trip itself. Maybe just text warnings. That's all the intro you're getting. Git going and read! July 11 Day of departure. 13.00 - 13.14 I manage to forget all the bathroom supplies for myself, yet the few things I had packed are either redundantly available or easily replaced. Early wakeup but only 6.30, so there's no real sleep issues beforehand. The whole check-in was actually simplified by a) arranging some of the things online beforehand and b) my grandmother getting a wheelchair to go around, which has tied all four of us into easier access and/or slight priority. For the record: my grandmother is absolutely able to walk; it's more that she walks slowly, and the larger distances of airports would be an extra exhaustion on top of the flights themselves, and probably it would press us for time. Instead we have plenty of time to sit around, stay fed and hydrated, and get a few little things like neck pillows or the deodorant I left at home. We're waiting the final wait before boarding. There was a very talkative Vietnamese lady at the check-in who managed to tell us a whole lot despite heavy levels of Engrish. That effectively deleted the perceived wait for that particular bit. There's wifi and electricity outlets all over the place, something which I don't remember being quite as much the case eight years ago. 15.00-15.15 We get to enter as the very first and exit as the very last, which is relaxing. And funny, because you're getting to go ahead of all the premium payers during boarding. A familiar sight is the entertainment screen with attached 'controller', designed particularly to function properly for the games they've got available on these things. More surprising is the fact that there's functional wifi once the plane is properly in the air; eight years ago it was 'no wireless signals' and everything. Turns out the free part is very limited and anything else is paid. Well, no. I can live without wifi for a day or two just fine. I'd already synced Evernote on my phone properly and everything. The on-board music library is not all-encompassing but surprisingly varied and contains pop music from a bunch of countries, and since this is Emirates we're flying with, that includes various Arabian places, but there's also various Asian countries. They have stuff from Karl Jenkins - that's neat. He's a composer I happen to know and love. First flight is a little over six hours. Let's go. Departure at 15.32. A little over a quarter of an hour later, we are up in the air at thousands of feet altitude. Little bit of turbulence just as I write this, and our dinner for this flight apparently. Granted, I've done this sort of big journey before, but when I was nearly 13 I definitely wasn't as aware of some of these things. Unrelated but not irrelevant, I've been working on- My grandmother is watching the Emoji Movie. Well alright then. What I was saying is, I pretty much started working on the events after Desert Air (the mysterious title The Hideaway is exactly that). It's coming along quite well, unlike pretty much everything else I've been meaning to (re)write. Oh well. 16.28 - first dinner sets arrive. I am a little hungry actually. What was I saying? Right. The Hideaway should explore where Raff goes. ...then my grandmother managed to get me watching the emoji movie, subsequently I got my meal, then she booted up Iron Man 2. So be it. The question HGD ran about Raff's future rolls around in my head now and then; what am I actually writing, aside from a somewhat unlikely but interesting series of events. I'll figure that out, eventually. Like with some other stories I've written, unintended but fitting themes will probably play up when I get there. It's actually 19.31 by the time I finish this, and I'm getting my eyes some rest. The Emoji Movie isn't that bad, even though it's more the gimmick and funny premise of a digital world in which the emojis supposedly live than an actual plot or any solid character development, I guess? I don't quite get that everyone around me was so disgusted at it when it came out. 21:16 Original time that is. It's 23.16 in the air, but 22.16 in Dubai, which is where we get to walk around and stretch our legs for some time before the second flight, which takes us to Jakarta. It departs at 04.10 Dubai time, which translates to 02.10 local time. That's still a fairly long wait, yet I'm not sure if I'll be able to catch any rest. Either I'll be too busy gawking at the airport itself, or too busy staying alert. I'm probably going to get my rest on the second flight, or at least I hope I will. In the meantime, failing to actually fall asleep or even rest (I did not bring one of those eye masks), I did a bit of writing, and honest to goodness played Bejeweled 2 on the built-in entertainment system. Half an hour to landing. We've already descended a fair bit from the cruising altitude and speed. The temperature outside is supposedly not too warm; initially the temperature on the screen actually seemed cold, but as we descend it looks like it'll be no warmer than a notably warm summer day at home. Daytime temperatures run well past 40° C so I hear, so maybe it's not so bad that we arrive in the dead of night. July 12 01.33 Plus two hours in Dubai time. Someone from the airport pushed my grandmother along, what with the unholy hour at which we arrived and depart. In between, I dozed off a bunch in the brightly lit lounge. Apparently I did catch some proper sleep about an hour before an airport crew member came along to direct us. This whole 'assistance' thing works out nicely if you ask me - handling boarding at a relaxed pace and exiting well after the busy mass has left; we get to do both together as a group. At least the other three are likely going to be sleeping or otherwise not very active. If feasible, I'm turning off the entertainment screen in hopes of getting something done. I realise now that I didn't check for wifi at the airport, but frankly I don't care at the moment. This flight is a little under eight hours; as I'm writing this bit it's about 04.00 Dubai time, so that adds up to 12.00, then +3 for Jakarta's timezone to make 15.00 or 3 PM. In my home timezone it's going to be a mere 9 AM which is always fun. Around the evening in the US my day starts, but at least I'm in sync with Australia, more or less. Okay enough timezone shenanigans. I'll write down more things later. 05.26 The old time, but it's well into the morning on both Dubai time and my eventual destination Jakarta, where it's already 10.27 in the morning. How heavily jetlagged will I be, I wonder when I write that out. I don't think it'll even matter because I haven't slept enough at all, timezone shifts aside. 10.51 Dubai time, and 13.51 Jakarta. Finding Nemo to my right, Bollywood to my left. I'm fairly sure I will be sleeping for the remainder of the day. Catfish and the Bottlemen - The Balance. Turns out to be pretty neat music. We land exactly at 13.00 Dubai time. Equivalent to 16.00 Jakarta time and 11.00 Amsterdam. So the timezone lineup is +1 (home), +3 (Dubai), +6 (Jakarta - I am here). I'll stick to Jakarta time from here on. With no notable mention of this trip to anyone at home save for a few people, I won't have to bother with regular talk or phone calls, which suits me fine to be honest. I will be checking the FB wiki when we're finally settled, or maybe on the way through the airport, if there's even wifi. The outside temperature here is 32° C, not unlike Dubai but undoubtedly much more humid. July 13 10.17 Gooood morning. So! After arrival. The airport is much different from what I remember from eight years ago. I was younger then of course. Much more space. Customs wasn't as much of an issue but it took a fair amount of time to get all our luggage back. We got an airport-endorsed taxi driver who was quiet but not unfriendly, and the drive was just fine. As for this hotel. Take's Mansion Hotel, three stars I believe. Looks real nice for that rating. Obviously there's bits like the drop when entering the bathroom and the secure wifi only being in the lobby - your room's wifi is make-believe secure because only your floor should in theory have signal to that particular network. I don't need to do anything confidential over my phone, but good to keep in mind anyway. We ate something nice when the check-in was done, then off to the room. The bathroom thing aside, it's fine. Clean, decorated but not too much. Right in the middle of Jakarta with a decent, no, good view on the city. 9th floor has its perks. This morning during breakfast, we noted that there's a lot of Indonesian guests here, which is a decent indicator of the food quality and taste being alright, and it is. Safe for outsider guests re: spicy, but not adapted to their tastes. The yogurt is sweet and the food is seasoned as is common here. The shrimp crispy things (krupuk udang) are as they should taste and not the weak things that they export abroad. I'm not extremely jetlagged, but I can tell from my eyes that my body thinks it's only 5:30 in the morning. It'll be fine I think. 13.15 Monas or Monumen Nasional. They usually don't get a lot of non-Indonesian tourists here. It's a national attraction with a bunch of impressive dioramas that depict key moments of Indonesian history. Given my Indo-European roots, I'm somewhat aware, but there are some things that I didn't know yet. Inversely, some of the text under the imagery was clearly written by the winners. That is to say, I'm fairly sure that the depiction is not 100% accurate. But that's a tad political. I doubt the Indonesian government will come for my head if I did detail it, but it's really specific and not something I am an expert on anyway. People here tend to regard the tall and light-skinned from elsewhere as a touristic sight - including me. 15.29 And we're back. The park around the Monas is neat, and full of people on a day out - Indonesians mostly. We stand out even more as a result. Sometimes I get some shy laughs when passing by from girls. Reminds me of my first visit age 12, when we visited a school for reasons I can't remember. All girls, all giggling at or about the innocent boy that they got to take a picture with. And indeed today my grandmother effectively used me as a prize fish for a few to take a photo with. Good fun says I, they like to take pictures with the likes of me: tall, European (yes, despite my roots I am obviously European to the people here yet 'Asian' in Europe) and perhaps my somewhat long hair has a part in it too. We made the mistake of taking pictures of one of those horse-drawn carts, a dokar. Eventually we agreed to let the rider take us to the hotel, but he didn't actually know where it was and we lost our orientation anyway. It was an experience, to slowly drift by while cars and small motorbikes zip by, and surprisingly enough traffic streams will bend around the slow cart without problem. Any honking is more a soft warning saying "I am here" and less of the angry car honk at someone who is in the way. It's not quite as chaotic as India is said to be, but it is a tangled mess that works fine regardless. We ate at a hall full of food stands in the park; busy place, attracted the various Indonesian tourists. Just make sure your drink is either something that makes it to the table in a closed bottle, or something hot like tea and coffee. Anything with ice cubes on the streets is a bad plan. Bottled water? Yes... if the seal is intact. We bought a few bottles at a little roadside stand and I had some doubts, but after purchase I could see that it was still sealed. A childhood spent reading packages and looking at trivial details on trips has prepared me well. All of this is because tap water is not very clean, and perfectly capable of ruining the relatively garbage immune system that we have, living in our clean(er) environments. There was a particular dish you usually can't get fresh in the Netherlands: nasi rawon. Apparently it's made with the insides of a particular nut that you normally can't buy, maybe unless you import it and prepare immediately. I was lucky to get some at an Indonesian restaurant/takeaway near my home a while back; I believe the owner imports things from Indonesia regularly. 17.53 Didn't get to write this: I made a rough sketch of the little stands that we ate at for the afternoon. I thought they were charming, personally. I slept some when we returned. Probably will sleep some more until dinnertime. And at 17.58, suddenly the sun has set and twilight increases faster than you can say 'a Sam'. 21:27 I did sleep some, I did write some. We ate at a neat restaurant (Sirih Merah) right next to the hotel, apparently while there was a large group having a party. Good fun. Good food too. And I am slowly learning to eyeball the prices because the conversion rate is of the 'thousands' sort, prices to match. 50,000 Indonesian rupiah is roughly €3, yet I still blink at prices on restaurant menus being such. Might actually be beneficial when tips and such are involved. I've been giving the site a daily check. I might try to create a separate journey blog page - what with mobile editing being of the tricky sort. 21:56 Reformatting some things, because I will in fact turn this into its own thing. I've never done this for the other journeys (Salzburg, Trier, camping in France, etc.) most of all because I didn't keep track while there. Now I do, so I may as well. I'll try to update it once a day, but I can't promise it will be that frequent. While showering I was thinking back to the whole 'photos and giggling girls' thing, in addition to Updaet #069 (whew) and a related dream logue entry, then to a zodiac test for Homestuck I took a few months ago (Liblo if my memory serves me right, teal signs?) which described the supposed sign as one of the naturally flirty ones. Maybe??? I do tend to call out nice shoes or clothing when I see it, assuming I know the person well enough to dare it. It's nothing serious; I'll do it to just about anyone I know and at least appreciate. And while I'm on that train of thought, there's a roof terrace on floor 11 with a pool, a restaurant and lovely live music that you can hear 2 floors down. The overall public consists more of guests closer to my age. Plans have been set to eat and listen there at some point. These are Indonesian tourists for the most part, but probably a bunch will know English, and my rudimentary understanding of Indonesian could probably help. If all else fails I could hope for wifi and Google Translate. Indonesian is a very forgiving language on grammar structure but somewhat challenging in its different verb forms. You have a basic verb (katadasar) to which you add all sorts of prefixes and suffixes to get either passive forms, or derived nouns (perhatian is warning though 'attention' fits the context more in which I hear it in airport announcements; the root word is hati, which is about looking out or being careful). Obviously I would not be inviting any charming strangers to come visit me in the Netherlands, but I doubt that'll be an issue to begin with. Alright, it's 22.25. Time to wrap this up, write an intro (or not) and post it up. And before I forget: I DID bring bathroom supplies, because I didn't actually store them after shaving but before. It makes sense, believe me. Or don't. July 14 09.11 Sunday morning at 8.15 is apparently when everyone in the hotel is ALREADY HERE at breakfast. We got a spot anyway thanks to a couple who were almost done. The breakfast is about 80% local food and 20% things adapted to foreign tastes. Though toasted bread is a known luxury item in Indonesia, so maybe not. I've had delicious breakfast. Last night I was trying to sketch Katherine based off of Darkest Dungeon's Antiquarian, which served as a slight inspiration for Desert Air and the overall 'strange merchant' outfit and such. 14.21 Good times with an old friend of my grandmother, her son and his family. Good Chinese food. It's kind of strange to be walking among the more wealthy Indonesians, but by their standards we are about as rich. 15.01 One meal and some walking later, we pass into Japanese and Korean sweet stuff in the mall. And ice cream. Gumball, rainbow candy, and other fantastic and ridiculously sweet flavours. I picked cotton candy. It tastes like... well 'sweet' with a hint of maybe something cake-like. It's a violent combination of purple and magenta. My teeth will not be pleased. It's funny to watch the sort of people who shop here. Some a little overweight, dressed in whatever the current fashion is. There's a few torn jeans - 'western' fashion in an eastern country. All the fancy international brands and franchise have shops, Starbucks included. Damn you, United States. But we had coffee at a local thing called Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. And it was good coffee, and not a giant cup. I don't mind the sizes but I know my parents do. Back to some writing while people babble and the kids play phone games with the speaker on loud. 16.14 Wassant (Japanese bakery called Provence) Chick'n Roll, Rotiboy Bekeryshoppe, and more funny plays on stuff I didn't immediately jot down. Lots of franchises, including Wendy's, the Pizza Hut and Délifrance being one thing I know from back home. It would be very easy to get lost in this Center Park Mall in Jakarta. In those corners that contain the confectionery and sweet things, the air is inherently teeth-eroding. Whew. Delicious smells try to lure you in to eat and eat. In other places there's this odd smell I only know as typically Indonesian. Whether it follows the people themselves or perhaps follows in the shape of cleaner or air freshener I do not know, but the smell is there. Then you walk past a perfume store and my nose wants to be anywhere else but here. Oh would you look at that. A VR stand, apparently advertising a VR theme park somewhere in a different mall nearby. They're playing some sick beats on the demo screen. ... there's apparently ice skating somewhere, they say. Mega Anggrek. My mother seems very enthusiastic, I am less so interested. 17.10 Right! I couldn't find enough underwear before departure so I still needed to buy some. I was a little spooked at first because rupiah prices reach seven digits real quick, but after a quick calculation it turns out I got plenty of goods for no worse price than I would have gotten them at home. I did still need them anyway and now I've got reasonably durable ones at least. Look at that. We took a taxi at 11, met my grandmother's old friends at 12, and now it's five hours later. It's a good thing there's an ATM literally on the hotel terrain; reading issues aside not every store here accepts a Mastercard-type debit card. It's not as terrible as I remember from 8 years earlier when it was basically impossible - if they even had a card reader to begin with. For reference: €1 is roughly 15,000 Indonesian rupiah. Slightly more, but generally you don't round to smaller than single thousands. Coins of 500, 200 do exist (and probably 100) but 500 is the only one that I have seen getting used outside the shopping mall so far. It helps that you generally round up for things like taxi pay as a small tip. It's an unspoken convention, and while they will give you change if you don't let it round up, they will certainly be happier if you leave it rounded up and thank you for it. We're having a drink in the Délifrance to wait out the worst of the rush hour. On the outside everyone is dressed well, better than we are, but behind it the people here probably don't earn all that much. They're friendly nonetheless. With this bit I'm going to leave it be until we're back in the hotel. 18.22 NOPE! We got bloody lost because we didn't literally backtrack. At least we're getting to walk across a cool sky bridge here. 19.53 It worked out fine, I spoke yet another valid sentence in Indonesian, and we pretty much gave the taxi driver twice the price on his meter. But he earned it for two, maybe three reasons. One, he was a nice guy once I said a whole thing in Indonesian and all. Two, the backroad route he took us through was nice and showed us the other side of this place, from the squeaky clean shopping mall to the little roadside boxes. A mother with her two daughters on a motorcycle ended up laughing and waving at us because we still are a touristic sight ourselves. Even more so because we're probably that one bundle of tourists they ever get to see in a taxi here. Three, and three is the only 'objective' thing, the man had a smarter route for the final distance to the hotel, taking a parallel road instead of having to double back on the main one. Now I'm back in the hotel and pretty tired. We spent roughly from 11.30 to 18.30 in that mall, if it wasn't more than that. No, definitely more, we must've spent about 30 minutes from the bit where we lost the way at 18.22. 'Long', more than 7 hours probably. But it was fun. A wassant has a structure not unlike a croissant, but it's shorter, straight, and looks like it was squashed slightly to achieve that shape. It is also much softer and sweeter - it is Japanese, so I am not too surprised. Tastes good. The alleged croissants we bought from the same store are the right size and shape but are also softer and sweeter, though less so than the wassant. You'd think with such a name it contains wasabi, but it doesn't. July 15 03.27 Can't sleep anymore. Accidentally woke up, then jetlag got the better of me falling asleep. At least I did get some sleep in before waking up. 07:27 And I slept some more, woke up and prepared for breakfast. Now I'm waiting for two more people to be ready but it's quiet on the other side. I actually finished penning the drawing of Katherine but I'm not fully satisfied with the result. It's still a fun experiment all things considered; I should do more of these. And practice head cloths. There's various examples just walking on the street, after all. 09.43 Grandmother and I were hoping to get some more cash via ATM... but the one next to the hotel is actually unable to provide any substantial amount it seems. Oh well, we might head over to a bank at a later time today. I think we're a stone's throw away from the national bank or something; the bus stop is called Bank Indonesia. 15.01 The park of Monas may be closed along with the monument itself, but the little food stands aren't. I've pretty much slept between the last bit and this, barring some talk and video watching. I might spin off the Katherine sketch into drawings of everyone among the Bearers in a weird Darkest Dungeon x The Wanderers inspiration combo. The Wanderers being a particular Homestuck album on Bandcamp that I bought some time ago because it's really cool. We managed to enter the park and now we're getting our food. Oh, and my mother was mistaken for an Ambonese. That explains why we didn't have to pay the tourist price for the Monas; tourist prices are roughly triple the normal price so that's neat. 20.28 Light dinner, doing some small creative bits. I'm definitely spinning this off into a little series, I think. Outlandish outfits all the way. July 16 08.03 I've slept rather well despite late sleep times and the same issues with jetlag, although right now I'm still feeling sleepy. I mostly finished a drawing of Helena but the coat needs more bits and pockets and what have you. I'm sure I'll figure it out. 12.34 Another old friend of my grandmother, another but slightly less labyrinthine mall. There's a floor area with clothing which is perfect regular and modern in shape, but with the colours and motifs of traditional batik. The old lady is a muslim but she comes from generations of people who don't care for dogmatics and covering their head: you don't need the outside show to be properly religious, is the opinion. While some of her family members disagree, they don't have the courage to take on this 82 year old stalwart lady. Something came up that I pondered on before departure - how much has changed? As it turns out the current president is decidedly not a radically religious figure, while his rival is. The downside is that he wants to build an expensive presidential palace outside Jakarta - which is currently sinking, I believe due to being on the coast and such. At the same time, this one has done a lot to reduce traffic pressure in Jakarta and other good things for Indonesia as a whole. Apparently this set of malls is a location we visited the previous time. While some of the looks outside ring a bell I can't recall this so clearly. It has been eight years. There is a dish supposedly according to a mother-in-law's recipe. It is spicy - the bane of one of us four. Quite naturally, this makes the creator of the recipe an evil in-law. 13.47 Whoof. The food is light and the individual portions smaller than in Europe, but the total amount is still more. We are probably going to find one more thing here and then head back. There's a wine and spirits store in this mall - unusual for a country with a muslim majority. But this is the capital Jakarta. These things happen here. The mall public for instance is low in conservative head-covered muslims. Those that do cover their heads do seem to dress in clothing with some amount of shape. And none of this is a style verdict; let them do as they deem right. 17.01 Fair warning - skip the third paragraph if you're sensitive to historical awareness polemics. It's a little spicy. We made it to the Kota Tua, a sliver of the old colonial Batavia. We got into a wayang museum - traditional puppetry, either shadowpuppets, visible three dimensional puppets, or alternatively traditional dance and music - the puppets are people instead. Now we're in the second oldest building still standing - used for many purposes throughout the years. Now it is cafe Batavia. And indeed, these buildings are in the style of 16th to 19th century Dutch colonial architecture. It's quaint. People smile and react with enthusiasm when they hear that we are from the Netherlands. In addition, these buildings are massive tourist attractions for Indonesians themselves, and as such they are in excellent condition; I'd dare state that the Indonesian government takes better care of its heritage than the Dutch one, in some ways. That reminds me of how the history isn't that strongly coloured in the dioramas of the Monas. They tend to call Jakartan things (food, the people, etc.) Batawi after the colonial name. What does this say about heritage treatment, I ask. It digs up the various 'well-thinking' people back home who want to bury 'disputed' figures from history because they want to pretend that the Dutch history has no black pages. Seeing the way they treat the sometimes grim history of Dutch colonisation here fills me with disdain for those... I can't even find a good word to properly express how much I loathe such cowards. Germany and the Germans are not afraid to treat their war history properly and without hiding any of it. Yes, Dutch trade ships had a massive part in slave trade. It's no pretty and idealised picture. Likewise the Dutch meddling of 1947-1948 is called the 'Dutch military aggression' in the plaque texts of the dioramas here. And that's what it was. There's plenty of dark and even black pages in the history of my country, but pretending that they aren't there doesn't magically delete them from the book. Why don't you try to patch away the slave keeping of ancient Greece and Rome, in that case? That is why I consider such people cowardly. There's plenty of parallels to make towards my own problems that I'm trying to face with less cowardice myself, but that's neither here nor there. ... aaaaaaand the waiter (deliberately?) used 'prima kasih' which is a Dutch bastardisation of 'terimah kasih'. My mother sounded like 'jark tocolate' instead of dark chocolate some time earlier. My anger fades as a result, but my spirited polemic zeal against historical cowardice remains. Enough of that I suppose. The various wayang puppets in many styles and materials could end up being inspirational for some design or other, but more importantly they're beautifully crafted pieces. July 17 13.12 Average sleep last night. Decided to do just some slight details on the two drawings so far, and I've actually started colouring these drawings because I have the pencils with me. So yes! That will be a series of drawings depicting a total of 9 characters in slightly more exotic outfits. I'm at #3 (Raff). Of course Delinius, Ina, Lyka, will follow, but there's already a few drawings of them and I'm not sure what odd clothing I can conjure up more than anything Delinius already wears. Unless I try my hand at him donning the fanciest 'regalia' he has, artifacts and such. Perdax likewise already has his unusual 'shades and pockets' getup. 14.55 Badminton in a nearby park, affordable lunch nearby, and then a short exploration to find one of many small supermarkets that seem to be tucked into all the forgotten corners of this city. Another funny thing we take note of: many plants that are sold as indoor pot plants grow in open air and normal soil here. Whole patches between roads full of tropical plants. (Side note: just had to migrate this document to Evernote from the phone's own notes app for exceeding 30,000 characters. Isn't that silly.) Back in the hotel it's time to start rearranging my suitcase contents for departure to Surabaya. I have been told so far that it should be less busy and cleaner, but not as much of an international/metropolitan place as the capital Jakarta. My mother has bought a map of Java here which is nice. For now though, I'm going to continue drawing and/or writing. 18.56 And so I did. My grandmother is still away having a lovely time- scratch that, she was having a lovely time with an old friend while we were away. She literally came walking into the restaurant next to the hotel, where we are. I slept or vaguely rested, and did some more drawing and colouring. Fairly pleased with the three drawings so far. Oh hang on. She ate SWEET fries. Sweet. Right, next is Ina, who gets a redesigned haircut, hair pendant and perhaps I'll design her clothing to be a little like Katherine's - styled a little like the Antiquarian from Darkest Dungeon and all. My grandmother has discovered the contract system of the taxi drivers here - each month they essentially have to buy themselves into a contract. That's no fun. Raff's getup is related to a neat vest made by Katherine and Helena, Katherine's clothing suggests some trinket merchant from a bazaar. 23.51 Most things are long since packed; I've meanwhile figured out something of an overall plan for the drawing series. Small logo things and what have you. Ina's apparel ended up differently - cloak included to show that she is done being the giggling prophet at this particular point in time. Many details to be decided on and added digitally in some far off future. July 18 09.36 No time to write until the wait before boarding. Packing went well enough, departure via a hotel driver - something my grandmother didn't trust the day before because she didn't know he was from the hotel. I slept well, but still I am tired. Maybe I'll sleep during the 90 minutes of the flight. 10.23 Luggage checked in, security gates passed. It would seem that they do not remove any liquid containers like bottles of water from you here, unlike at home where they'll even remove things like toothpaste or small cosmetic products. It might help that these hotel-provided bottles are sealed very obviously with a plastic seal over the cap. That's nice, by the way. Two bottles of water per two-person room per day, at no further cost. Might be part of the regular price even, since it's the only source of clean water in this country. Hospitality might also play a part. 12.15 About to take off. These regional flights are notably easier on the various checks and boarding steps. That distinct smell I recognise from Indonesia is actually from some anti-moth product. These small planes are nice. It takes far less time for all passengers to board and disembark, and there are no brightly lit screens to hurt your eyes with blue light. Before boarding I continued inking the drawings and as we ascend I'm waiting for the moment when I can resume. I was sleepy, but I don't expect to catch much rest in here. These small planes are nice, but they are also noisier. The limited leg room and resultant higher passenger density don't help me out either with my six foot and a bit. Oh, and there's the loud announcement system. 17.10 Well that's nice. First of all, our route to the hotel pretty much took us along all the places that my grandmother has been meaning to visit, and she immediately became even happier. The hotel is alright, smaller rooms but in the very middle of Surabaya, right near the notable places, and opposite a large mall. As we walked through the big shopping lanes we had trouble finding somewhere to eat. And lo! A friendly Surabayan girl/lady walked up behind me and asked if I was looking for something, in good English. She pointed us to the fifth floor, so off we went... only to conveniently meet her on the escalator again. She offered to walk us through the food court and everything. Turns out she has spent some time in several European countries - Sweden, France and half a year in the Netherlands, in The Hague. It was a fun talk, and she proposed to keep in touch in case she visits Europe again - she has several more friends who helped a good deal with any trouble she had in Europe in the past, and she knows my home city, funnily enough. We had dinner in a decent restaurant and now we've moved to some coffee place. Salted crackers in a cute little paper cup. We can see down from the fourth floor here; it's a central reference point with an exposition and conference centre all the way at the top. Slight irony - I figured something funny and girl-related would happen, but it went down in a completely different place and it is of a different nature than what I was expecting. Who knows, she is clearly someone with a broader view. Hang on. My mother picked an espresso affogato - coffee with ice cream. And she was wondering why it doesn't taste like espresso with avocado and ice. There's no avocado in an affogato, I don't think. We all proceed to laugh and poke fun. 18.59 Well. Remember the irony bit? I'm invited to come over for lunch at some point. My grandmother had already predicted this kind of thing, and admittedly I saw the charming shy laughter as well. This is what the shirt on the day of departure was for. That aside, even though this is shaping up to be a very interesting exchange, I'm finally getting back to my drawings now. July 19 08.09 Grandmother isn't doing so well since yesterday night; she is staying in the hotel room. Where that leaves the other three of us is up for debate; maybe I can split off and visit my newly met friend, maybe we can make this a full day of rest. 15.31 Mostly a day of rest. My grandmother has asked me to go fetch some non-sweet foodstuffs so that she can have something tolerable to eat for now. So off I go with my mother; I'm actually getting a lunch meal while we're here though. The Surabayan friend will come along to bring my grandmother some things too this evening; perhaps she'll invite me to head into the city together, come to think of it. Heh. Tomorrow morning is apparently a car-free morning around a monument and its field - ideal for badminton while I visit a market, either just with her or with my grandmother along, depending on how she feels. July 20 00.10 Well. First of all I have a new friend now, Ana. From the mall encounter. Despite one conservative parent she has a very broad view and enjoyed telling me all about Surabaya and its history. Ate nasi goreng at a street cart, but since she is from here she knows which ones are fine for me to eat. Discussed a lot of interesting topics; she was pleasantly surprised that I knew a great deal about Indonesia and even a little about Surabaya in particular. Not too many people know, so it seems. Some of the heritage treatment came up too, and she confirmed that it is very much something the Indonesian government takes seriously. Sure, the colonial era brought oppression and inequality. It also brought industry and education. We also discussed religion and it was a nice insight for both of us. I'm not religious in a clearly defined way but I can appreciate the positive influence it can have on people. She's a muslim, but once again broad view, and it turns out her mother strongly encouraged her to travel beyond Indonesia to get a broader view. I won't sum up every single thing, but I will say this: this is how I explore this country more closely. All sorts of plans and ideas she has to meet with us again, suggestions for places to visit, good food. She went out of her way to get some non-sweet food for my grandmother! So yes. This isn't going to be some wild story all about that one encounter in a distant city. But I think I'd rather have it like this. Surabaya is an important place regarding my roots, and I've found the perfect person to discover the city of the present day. Afterwards I had a long and good conversation with my grandmother. Family things, culture things. Memories. "Cathartic" to some extent and that's all I will say about it. Tomorrow we're off to visit a traditional market. Well, technically today. Timezone shenanigans strike again! 12.58 Here's hoping that everything works out. The timing didn't quite work out like it should. I've tried to draw Delinius for the series of outlandish outfits but I'm not satisfied just yet. Maybe it's because he lives and breathes outlandish outfit just a bit. Fortunately my friend knows where the restaurant is, so if all else fails she will still end up with everyone else and I get a ping that she is already there. Yep. 13.22 I get a ping as expected. 19.29 So! This was a great afternoon. Had a fun talk. The full deal is that my grandmother's friend has kids who also are very fond of both old ladies. They're amazing folks too, once again very broad minded. One of them has a daughter currently in school who would like to learn Dutch. A nice surprise, and I told her I'd be happy to offer some extra advice. They were quite amazed by my drawings as well. The Delinius drawing has made a remarkable comeback even though the forward perspective doesn't quite do it right. I'm about to head down to the pasar malam with Ana. We'll see what the evening brings. July 21 11.02 Yesterday was an adventure. The pasar was a colourful crowded event. Once again I've talked about too many interesting things to describe them all here. People looked at me with mild surprise but not in an unfriendly way. The owners of a stand wanted a picture of me buying one of their products, which is fine by me - I am the white elephant if you'll excuse the weird comparison. Traditional wayang orang (live wayang puppets) in the middle of the street and modern Indonesian music a few hundred metres further. 16.32 Pasar Blauran is way more of a "commoner mall" so to speak. You will find things of reasonable quality for a reasonable price, unlike the big fancy malls a tourist normally sees. For my grandmother it was a nostalgic experience even if the streets have changed. They're still as broad as they used to be, and their names haven't changed fundamentally. July 22 08.00 I ended up staying in the hotel room for the rest of the evening yesterday; I was fairly tired and I feel like Ana might have been tired too. Today we are driving to places of my grandmother's past, with Ana's brother to drive us around. That's kind of the way it works here: family and friends, if you can help them, take preference over regular services, e.g. a taxi. Hotels tend to have their own private drivers who determine their price beforehand depending on the destination, rather than the regular taxi which works with a meter. I did a fair bit of colouring and a little more drawing, mostly finalising some details on the Delinius drawing. I'm starting to accept that I will need to change up details and add them in general once digital drawing rolls around. Writing stories has not been a high priority. Rewatching a Darkest Dungeon playthrough from a favourite content creator competes with creative pastimes, but it's not like I'm particularly inspired to do much. Breakfast awaits. 11.38 The Santa Maria school still exists. And the building is still the same. And my oh my, they were incredibly welcoming. The staff were impressed by the fact that my grandmother used to attend this school, and we were even welcomed by a sister, sister Agatha. They're going to add this visit to the school's newsletter - this is something special for them too. And lastly - my grandmother knelt down to pray in the chapel. I was moved and I'm not sure why. It's the idea, maybe, that she has finally returned to the school of her childhood, chapel included. We've now gone over to a nearby mosque for Ana's brother, and we have settled down in a digital terrace/cafe annex hangout place. There's power sockets attached to every table and probably wifi, and for a small roadside place everything is exceptionally clean and looks well cared for. No airco since this is still more of an open air corrugated steel roofed building, but there's rotating fans on the ceiling frame. All in all this "Digital Teras" strikes me as an odd oasis of quality some distance from the city centre. Ana's brother knows exactly where to go for good places. Meeting such people is unique, and this won't be the last time we speak and probably not the last time we meet. 15.08 If there is a god, I thank that god. For my grandmother. First of all, the church administration still has the records of the very marriage that my grandmother attended as a bridesmaid; her father as one of the witnesses. The one she still has a photograph of. And while there, two people entered from the same generation as my grandmother - Dutch language included. That was special, and eventually my grandmother was allowed to receive the marriage paperwork. And now at the cemetery, we found the grave of my great-great-grandmother. While the workers headed out to find it, we stuck around to wait. My bonus father decided to look around and ran straight into the right grave. This was highly emotional for my grandmother, for my mother, and lastly for me, because this never happens. There are three generations between me and this ancestor, and for me to meet her, albeit in her grave, that's probably not something a lot of people get to experience nowadays. Phillipina Gertruida Dandrieu-Krab, born 1893 in Jakarta, passed 1950 in Surabaya. Grave L294. I know this whole bit is oddly personal but I don't care. And on the way, we've passed the old house where my grandmother used to live. Unfortunately it looks abandoned, but at least we have seen it. The worn iron gate is original though. July 23 08.05 Last evening brought me nausea and eventually the exit of my stomach content on the wrong end. Whether from too many transitions between air conditioned spaces to the warm outside or from just the one consumable that wasn't entirely safe, I have been sick ever since, with little sleep. I did get some colouring done last night but I'd probably change it up now that i look at it. Too late. Hopefully my insides will hold their calm until I can easily reach a toilet. 19.00 Some Discord reading later and all that, and I see my absence due to sickness was inconvenient. I did actually make it through the flight in one piece and all the way to the hotel. This is a nice place, right near the beach. I've slept for pretty much the whole day and probably I'll be asleep again soon. Anyway, I am still sick but not the "I want to throw up" kind anymore. I've so far kept the food in that I ate. I will look at some suggested things and deal with a text makeup error in Desert Air (thank you Ludi). Then I will sleep. July 25 11.06 Didn't sleep well at all last night, but so be it. My mother is the one down with a cold now. At the same time, today's boat trip to the local turtle island would probably have been a little stressful for her, but the sights! The sea wind blowing in my hair. Obviously eight years ago I did the same thing, but I wasn't so aware back then. Our taxi driver is an honest man, former police officer. Because the state doesn't provide sufficient support for retirees he supplies our hotel with coffee and works as a driver for them; he is good friends with some of the staff I believe. And he gets to come with us, and eat with us. Not mandatory, but something customary. The other tourist boats, the jet skis, the parasails, etc. are nice, and so are the little fishes that dart underneath the glass bottom of the boat. But the friendly boatman and the clusters of no longer functioning boats that people make their homes on impressed me more. I have watched sea turtles of different kinds, and even fed the oldest one they have floating around (80 years old). A bearded dragon or similar lizard, fruit bats, antsy toucans, peacocks... and a small python that seemed somewhat convinced that it might just defeat the puny human holding it. Poor thing. All this in name of the turtle conservation, however - the turtles they keep were apparently some of the last ones at some point, but now they've managed to set some little ones free into the sea. Another interesting thought that passed while I was enjoying my sea breezy boat ride: this is very similar to a scene from the old version of Desert Air. Yes, as odd as that sounds, Katherine actually goes on a boat ride in that script. Having consciously made a tourist boat trip helps me reuse that... maybe. Hoo boy, it's kind of windy here. As in "windy as my native Dutch coasts as far as I really visit them nowadays" that is. But it's nice. July 26 21:30 Holy heck time goes fast. Though I'd say the greatest excitement was me messing about in the sea to find small bottom feeders spurting away... and small hermit crabs. I did point out a sea urchin somewhere - not something you want a curious kid to poke with their finger. I wasn't sure it was actually a sea urchin until slapping it with a loose slipper confirmed that the pointy things were in fact rigid. Attemped a redo of the Delinius drawing and with good results. Just got a little stuck and frustrated on the hands business, which is far from unusual. I might try to deal with the hands thing tonight but I doubt it. Oh, yesterday after turtle island we really didn't do much either. Today we didn't do much either, but tomorrow is a so-called fire dance. Irony, innit. Also, "sambal turis" is what I've named the tame 'hot sauce' tonight's restaurant pick served my grandmother upon her request. Tourist food, and wherever we go we keep meeting the Australians from our same hotel, but at least they're quite amiable and joke about it just as we do. July 27 18.41 Uhh. The place of the fire dance is really fancy. I'm glad my grandmother told me "get your blouse, you can catch up to us" now. I've had a good massage, good food and a bunch of nothing. The redone Delinius drawing is a success. I might change the bag strap to fully be a makeshift bandolier since it is fairly broad but otherwise the major part is done. The rest I got a little tired and bored of writing at that point. Both barong and kecak were impressive dances in their own way, but the rest of the time really just was "hotel, beach, hotel, lunch, massage, hotel, dinner". Category:Blog posts